Live, from the Spin Room, it’s …

posted at 12:37 am on January 8, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

Well, if you’re going to have a spin room, don’t you want people who “spin” for a living? In this case, we have one of the most appropriate appearances in politics. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s spin, too, and if you look carefully in this video, you can see Philip Klein shooting me an “I can’t believe we’re recording this” look that I was returning at the same time. Most audacious spin: Debbie Wasserman Schultz claiming that Barack Obama has begun climbing out of the pit of George Bush’s record deficits by, er, tripling the worst deficit Bush ever ran three years running, or something. Like I said … spin.

Believe it or not, we also had some Republicans in the spin room as well. In fact, as he has done in every debate, Rick Santorum represented himself in the spin room, which I thought might not happen due to either his front-runner status or his sore throat. Nope; Santorum stuck to his plan, and this time he got a lot more attention. In fact, I didn’t even hear what he was saying until I played this back tonight in the filing center. Santorum answers questions about his 2006 loss in the Senate race, and says that he has “no doubt” that he can win in Pennsylvania now. Santorum also says that he “repeatedly” attacked Romney in this debate:

After this, I found Senator Rand Paul representing his father Ron in the hall. Once again, it was impossible to hear the conversation, and I’m grateful for the good microphone I have for this purpose. Paul talks about his effort to force a vote on Barack Obama’s Libya adventure, an effort that I wholeheartedly supported and applauded at the time. He also offers some insightful analysis about why it’s so hard to go after Romney, which is that his demerits are already so well known — and that the rest of the field have some of the same shortcomings. Maybe Rand and Ron should trade places.

I also briefly got to interview former governor John Sununu, who first asked me who I represented. When I told him Hot Air, he laughed and said, “‘Hot Air’? Sounds like Democrats!” I told him nothing could cut me more deeply, and so he agreed to do a short interview to help promote Romney’s performance in the debate:

Since we have another debate tomorrow, I probably shouldn’t wait to give my thoughts on the one tonight. To channel my inner Newt — frankly, I thought it was fundamentally awful. In the first hour of the debate, ABC managed to waste about a quarter of the time on states banning contraception, which was a pressing issue as recently as … 1965. Mitt Romney reamed out George Stephanopoulos for fixating on contraception, and eventually Diane Sawyer shut him down on it. Then both of them went on a long series about gay marriage, which is another issue that is nowhere near the top, oh, 50 issues in American life today. Newt Gingrich ended up asking ABC why it isn’t pursuing anti-Catholic bigotry in media and government, one of his best moments in the debate, and we eventually spent a lot of time talking about jobs. Ha, ha, I kid, of course; that subject was barely mentioned by ABC and had to be repeatedly referenced by the candidates instead.

Guy Benson has a marvelous blow-by-blow roundup, so be sure to read it in its entirety. My assessment is that Romney once again won by not getting punched by the field, which seemed to focus more on each other instead. Newt Gingrich never went Newtclear as we figured he might, and that made his performance tonight a bit anti-climatic, but he was still good, effective, and especially dynamic when he went on the warpath with ABC. Santorum helped his cause with a strong debate performance. Rick Perry gave another good debate performance, but I doubt it will be a gamechanger here or in South Carolina; he needs a spectacular performance, accompanied by collapses for all of his competitors. Paul was Paul, and Huntsman — who started out very sharp — eventually was Huntsman, with a quote in Chinese that had the press in the filing center groaning and laughing. That could be a game changer for Huntsman, but not in the way he wants.

I’ll watch tomorrow’s debate, but I’ll be doing so from my hotel room. I don’t expect to get too much better, with the candidates going on little sleep and wondering how they let Romney slip from their grasp yet again.

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I can’t believe no one chloroformed that abrasive harpie. Debbie Dunce should just spontaneouly combust, period. I never want to make a living by spewing socialist lies. I’d say she made a pact with Satan, but I don’t believe she has a soul to sell. Maybe she’s one of those robots from Japan.

What exactly in Gov Romney’s answers did you object to? I found him to be conservative in every way. We all change. I have become much more conservative as I see the idiots on the other side, and what they are doing to our country.
He and Rubio would make a great duo. They are both smart, good looking and love this country.

Mitt just has to follow the formula of not taking the liberal moderators’ bait, pivoting to discussing the big picture, talking about how the economy actually works, and knowing when all of the major sports seasons are in play. If he does this, he’s home free.

It would help if he could discuss the larger implications of the Islamist threat in the Middle East and Africa. Energy policy is good, too. Kind of a big deal.

Mitt, are you going to support a ban on contraceptives in Pennsylvania?

Romney wins the nomination, but loses to Obama, then Gingrich seizes power in a military coup. Santorum gets the girl, and Rick Perry kills Ron Paul in a duel. Huntsman takes over China and will return in the sequel.

I don’t understand why no one is reacting to the basic Alinsky drill these MSM-run debates engage in. Why is ABC running tonight’s debate? Why is Debbie Downer in the spin room? Why is Donna Brasile offering “analysis”? Over the past few months we’ve had four or five relatively serviceable candidates knocked out of contention by the media’s “pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it” tactic. As the Democrats and their media servants drive us to a Romney-Obama campaign which they are completely ready for. They haven’t gone after Romney because their saving it for the general.

ED! Get your @$$ to bed! You are under the weather, and it’s only primary politics…get some rest…
How can you be under the weather…get so close to that woman (without vomiting)…and not have lice jump out of her hair…onto your person! You better get checked! (They have those bombs for fleas…I used them a dozen years ago in my house when my dog brought something home). Get checked out, before you go home!
Are you starting to itch anywhere? (:>)

Yeah it’s on Meet the Press? or Eat the Press? or Meet the Depressed? or Cheat the Rest? Greet the Mess? but it’s on at 9am ET which means 8am where I live, so just sleep in and avoid it–or watch the USA NCIS marathon which conveniently starts at the same time.

I would say Obama lost this debate. Every one was spitting mad at Obama for his unconstitutional actions this week so made the debate a Dump on Obama Night.

I think that was smart. There is a long time to go and 25% helps Romney little it actually hurts him he needs 50% not 25%. Michele Bachman’s delegates are not likely to vote for Romney neither will the other losers so Romney could actually be far in the back.

I don’t understand why no one is reacting to the basic Alinsky drill these MSM-run debates engage in. Why is ABC running tonight’s debate? Why is Debbie Downer in the spin room? Why is Donna Brasile offering “analysis”? Over the past few months we’ve had four or five relatively serviceable candidates knocked out of contention by the media’s “pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it” tactic. As the Democrats and their media servants drive us to a Romney-Obama campaign which they are completely ready for. They haven’t gone after Romney because their saving it for the general.

Even when Romney detractors still spin it against him. Hayes points out that the deabate opened with the mods giving candidates ample opportunity to attack Romney.

On 3 occasions they did. On 3 occasions they failed.

Romney detractors got to get over this notion he just lucked out. He got attacked. He just knows how to deftly deflect and beat back attacks to the point where it makes the attacker look bad or mean and they dont want to bother.

Ed, I’m glad you were there and reported on this so I didn’t have to. You missed a good high scoring playoff game tonight. The Saints eventually prevailed, but the Lions looked good until they pooped out in the 4th quarter. This will be a team to watch in the coming years. Oh but I digress. Politics. Romney wins New Hampshire in a landslide, Sawyer and George The Greek continue their journey to cellar of the network news ratings, and by Super Tuesday, it will all be over except to see who Romney picks for a VP.

In more important news, The Giants will beat the Falcons, just barely, and the Steelers will win easily over the Broncos.

I like Debbie Wasserman Schultz. You always know what the default democrat party line is on any subject just by listening to her. She never varies,she never comes up with anything original, Just whatever the party line is

What exactly in Gov Romney’s answers did you object to? I found him to be conservative in every way. We all change. I have become much more conservative as I see the idiots on the other side, and what they are doing to our country.
He and Rubio would make a great duo. They are both smart, good looking and love this country.

Bambi on January 8, 2012 at 12:54 AM

Romney did say all the right things. I want to believe the guy. Trust me, I’m not interested in having a nominee whom I fear is a stealth Democrat or moderate. Tonight did get me to start feeling a lot more comfortable with Mittens as the GOP candidate. He’s making too many promises to the conservative base to not risk a full-scale revolt on not only his Presidency, but on the entire Republican Party, if he were to get into office and subsequently renege on every one of them.

He’s pledged to repeal Obamacare. He promises to cut corporate taxes to 25%(I’d like them lower, but it’s still an improvement). He says he’ll expand domestic energy production. He wants to repeal Dodd-Frank. He praised Justices Alito, Scalia, Roberts, and Thomas. He openly supported the repeal of Roe vs. Wade. For chrissakes, the man is threatening a trade war with China! No one but Trump has gone that far in this entire campaign season.

If it was anyone else saying this stuff, they’d be a cinch for the nomination because they’d have the entire conservative base behind them. But Mittens does have a spotty record as Governor and a Senatorial candidate which understandably makes people weary. I take comfort in the fact that he can’t possibly break this many promises to us. He knows he’d be throwing himself and his party under the bus. We’re not Democrats. We don’t fall in line out of a sense of loyalty or obligation. We hold people accountable and we demand results. So Romney and his establishment backers have to know that it won’t be business as usual if he were to win the nomination and ascend to the Presidency. Hell, the mess Obama is leaving him by itself will guarantee that. I’m still not 100% sold on the guy, but tonight went a long way toward alleviating some of the fears I had about him.

And Rand Paul nails why the other candidates haven’t attacked Romney as much as they’d like. Though to be honest, this isn’t rocket science.

Between Romneys 2008 run and the fact that he’s polled reasonably well throughout the primary, the vast majority of his criticisms are already well known. Reiterating those criticisms, again and again, louder and louder each time, would only make the other candidates look irate and unhinged. In other words, he’s been vetted on this front, and is therefore largely immunized.

Additionally Rand is also very apt to point out that most of these candidates have the same weaknesses. There’s a reason why Newt seems to go after Romney about his business experience more often than his actual political record. It’s kind of difficult to criticize somebody for using a state wide mandate when you yourself advocated a federal one. On this front, the only candidates that can really attack Romney without being hypocritical, are Ron Paul and Rick Perry.

Honestly, both have done reasonably good jobs attacking Romney, at least in terms of subjects that haven’t been pounded to death. Paul however isn’t going to get the nomination because he’s too far out of the mainstream, and Perrys poor performance early on all but nullifies any points he might score. As such, the most these sorts of attacks do is give Romney debate practice. In other words, they’re vetting him and making him a stronger general election candidate.

It might seem strange to some, but this is part of the reason why Romney is thought to be a strong general election candidate. Obama is such a weak candidate that his only realistic shot as winning is to demonize whomever he’s running against. This would be a very viable strategy, against any of the candidates BUT Romney. Mitt is a known quantity, the public perception of the man is fairly well cemented and he has reasonably high favorables. meaning he will be successfully hard to demonize.

Not that Obama won’t try. Mark my words, before this election is over Romney will be attacked both as lefty socialist AND as a right wing nutjob. Heck, it’s pretty much inevitable right now. I mean, what else Obama gonna say, don’t vote for this reasonable articulate candidate?

I think it’s a massive ethical conflict for a sitting member of congress to be a party chair. At the least the ridiculous partisan horsepucky worsens necessary relations in the House, and how can a person adequately serve both positions at the same time.

/presuming the person is even ‘adequate’ in the first place, which Debbie Liar-Liar demonstrably is not.

This had to be the worst group of questions that I have heard so far. I kept waiting for one of the candidates to ask the moderators why they never asked Obama any of these questions. Chicken hawk? Man and woman only marriage? Iran going nuclear? 20 years in ONE church and he never heard any of the anti-American garbage? State prohibited birth control? Collapse of Iraq after he pulled everyone out? How many years did Obama serve in the military?
The other thing I noticed was the Ron Paul is just a mean nasty old man. He is a loser of the first order and could not lead anyone but a bunch of dope seeking college kids. Constitutionalist my ass. Everyone there had a great debate except Paul. All of the other candidates eventually went after Obama but Paul. Euthanasia comes to mind when I see him perform.

Pretty good summary of the debate by some guy on RedState, of all places:

Let’s face it: the ABC News New Hampshire debate was the worst debate of the entire election cycle. And that is saying something, considering the sheer volume of debates. How many years and election cycles will it take before Republicans learn to turn to conservatives as moderators for presidential debates, instead of washed up Democrat hacks disguised as journalists?

Now, to the extent that such a pathetic debate is worthy of any analysis, the clear winner was Mitt Romney. Watching the debate, you’d think Ron Paul was the frontrunner. All of the verbal altercations played out between Ron Paul and one of the other candidates. Romney was able to sit pretty throughout the entire debate, except for one monologue from Santorum at the end of the debate. Undoubtedly, the platform for the debate, along with the inane questions, wasn’t exactly conducive to attacking Romney’s liberal record as governor. However, they all had an opportunity during the opening salvo of the debate. They failed miserably.

The candidates were given an opportunity to assail Romney’s business record at Bain Capital as a job killer. Gingrich and Santorum should have parried the question and gone after Romney on his record in politics. They should have praised Romney’s record as a businessman while ticking off his liberal vices and his terrible record as Governor, most prominently, his record on healthcare. They should have decried the fact that we are on the precipice of nominating Obama’s inspiration for Obamacare as his successor. Instead, they chose an awkward position – one that placed them to Romney’s left on free-market entrepreneurship. Why attack his record as a CEO when you can destroy him on his liberal record as governor? This was the biggest mistake on the part of those who are seeking to derail Romney.

To be sure, it was refreshing to hear Santorum finally take Romney to task for his class system rhetoric; however, he obviated his argument by making “blue collar worker” a prominent part of his lexicon. Santorum should have also used that response as an opportunity to attack Romneycare for its inherent class warfare. Romneycare disincentivizes success and upward mobility by offering greater subsidies for lower income earners.

I still can’t get over the fact that we are about to nominate the godfather of market-distorting government-run healthcare in an election against government-run healthcare. This is insane.

Romney wins the nomination, but loses to Obama, then Gingrich seizes power in a military coup. Santorum gets the girl, and Rick Perry kills Ron Paul in a duel. Huntsman takes over China and will return in the sequel.

I loved the part when Newt says the institution of mariiage has been one man and one woman for the last 3,000 years. And then Mitt corrected him and said it has only been one and one woman for 123 years and then they all laughed. Good times!!!

ROMNEY:
RomneyCare? The Democrats made me do it!
Liberal Judges? The Democrats made me do it!
State-Paid Abortions? The Democrats made me do it!
Quit the Party when Reagan ran? The Extremist Republicans (Reagan) made me do it!

So, the Republican party is determined to select as its nominee the man who made RomneyCare the law in his state – the same healthcare law that was the blueprint for Obamacare. And then they expect Tea Party people, fiscal conservatives and Reagan Democrats (fiscally & socially conservative blue-collar workers) to vote for him? Hmmmm …

Mitt Romney, the Massachusetts Moderate with the Liberal record, technocrat reputation (anyone remember another Mass. governor like this?) and “shady” vulture capitalism background is an extremely odd choice for the standard bearer of a party whose rank and file despise Obamacare and crony capitalism.

I wanna ask a question but I have to defer to yahoo, so to be somewhat involved I’d like to ask you to pretend ur in ur kitchen and answer this ridulous question as if ur life depended on it and be sure to pander to our audience and remember ur in ur kitchen, and really I’m not on pain meds, do u really hate gay people or am I getting it wrong and by the way ur in ur kitchen and we aren’t talking to just NH people but people sitting at ur kitchen table, do I need to repeat the question? If u could include contraception in the answer all the better, go. Response: What was the question again?

I only watched for about 40 minutes and I had to turn it off. It’s all I could take of Diana Sawyer and Stephanopoulos. In that time Newt got one question which was all about Romney and Perry got one question. Other than that it was the Paul, Romney and Sanctorum show, with Sanctorum allowed to run on and on. Oh yeah, Huntsman got to speak few times. The two candidates who actually have a chance to beat Obama, Gingrich and Perry, were being neutralized with all the time going to the candidates who the media want to run against Obama. I can’t believe that the Republicans let the enemy run their presidential primary debates. It’s insane. I imagine the moderators all get together afterward and laugh their asses off over the stupidity of the Republican Party.

I like Debbie Wasserman Schultz. You always know what the default democrat party line is on any subject just by listening to her. She never varies,she never comes up with anything original, Just whatever the party line is

LordDaMan on January 8, 2012 at 1:34 AM

I gotta tell you that the more I (painfully) listen to her, the more I am reminded of Baghdad Bob.

I didn’t watch any of the debates. I know who I am NOT voting for, and there was a couple really good football games on, besides.

I MIGHT be persuaded to vote for Perry or Santorum, but no one else comes close to be a viable conservative candidate. With Bachmann and Palin both out of the race, I have a very good chance of just sitting this one out.

I MIGHT be persuaded to vote for Perry or Santorum, but no one else comes close to be a viable conservative candidate. With Bachmann and Palin both out of the race, I have a very good chance of just sitting this one out.

Interesting vids. Spin *can* be funny. But that’s *even more* why I think GINGRICH WON: he was the only one to control the narrative; the rest passively followed these mediocre moderators into Leftist LaLaLand drivel diversions. He’s is the only one with the strength and intelligence to refocus when diverted, to call on the carpet when hypocrisy arises.

It is just totally classless, baseless, and utter nonsense to keep on bellowing about how Obama inherited such a horrible mess. When ya can’t think of anything your guy as accomplished, bash the previous guy.

If I were a Democrat, I’d be embarrassed as heck to have DWS speak on my behalf.

Thanks for running Albino Obama candidates so the song remains the same. You know nothing about me, but you are happy to deride my comments without anything other than ad hominum?

I’ve earned my right to cast or withhold my vote from any candidate in any election. I’m a life member of the Disabled American Veterans, and live every day of my life in pain due to my service. Now, that and $1 will buy me a cup of joe at the local McDonalds, but what I’m saying is that I base my choices upon the candidate or candidates which will best support ME.

I’ve sent what I could afford, and put sweat equity into getting real conservatives elected, not the greased-up, slicked-down GOP appointed morons that we seem to be saddled with this time around.

Of those still in the race, only Santorum and Perry have anything approaching actual conservative values.

I cannot, and will not cast my ballot ever again for someone who doesn’t, in my opinion, represent me and my values. I will never again cast my vote for someone just to keep someone else out of office. NEVER. AGAIN. If my party cannot or will not run actual conservatives for office, then perhaps it’s time to find a new party and let the self-annointed GOP elites rot.

Electing Romney, Huntsman, Paul or Giungrich will do NOTHING to change Washington, or the direction our country is headed. NOTHING.

I want to be able to look myself in the mirror and not be ashamed of the way I voted, and with who’s left on the GOP ticket, I honestly can’t do that right now.

If it was anyone else saying this stuff, they’d be a cinch for the nomination because they’d have the entire conservative base behind them. But Mittens does have a spotty record as Governor and a Senatorial candidate which understandably makes people weary. I take comfort in the fact that he can’t possibly break this many promises to us. He knows he’d be throwing himself and his party under the bus. We’re not Democrats. We don’t fall in line out of a sense of loyalty or obligation. We hold people accountable and we demand results. So Romney and his establishment backers have to know that it won’t be business as usual if he were to win the nomination and ascend to the Presidency. Hell, the mess Obama is leaving him by itself will guarantee that. I’m still not 100% sold on the guy, but tonight went a long way toward alleviating some of the fears I had about him.

Doughboy on January 8, 2012 at 2:02 AM

I wish I could believe this. I used to believe this stuff – I no longer do, not after the results of 2010. I think the Establishment’s only interest is pilfering as much cash as they possibly can before the USA finally goes bankrupt. I think one of the reason Romney’s been selected as the “next in line” is specifically because he won’t shake things up for an Establishment that doesn’t want to take a pay cut or make lifestyle changes.

Glad Ed was there. Thought Diane Sawyer was going to pass out while hissing the word “Constitution” during her setup for the question on gay marriage. Was she bored or disgusted with the quaint discussion on the Constitutionality of a subject, or both?

There was a time when women in influential places didn’t feel the need to put cosmetic surgeons’ children through college.

Consider the motivations behind political questions from such a soul.

Then consider how it is that we as a culture have come to regard such persons so highly and to allow them access to such positions of influence and to regard those running for political office in such low esteem.

I also briefly got to interview former governor John Sununu, who first asked me who I represented. When I told him Hot Air, he laughed and said, “‘Hot Air’? Sounds like Democrats!” I told him nothing could cut me more deeply

Ed, if John Sununu really knew what commentators said on Hot Gas, he would have said it sounds like The Daily Kos.
/

Word. Apparently this debate is, in fact, on Sunday morning. Wonder how many GOP voters they really think they’re going to get in the viewing audience. If the Protestants aren’t in church in a time zone, the Catholics are, and vice versa.

What Wasserman-Schultz showing up at the debate spin room shows is that despite controlling the White House and Senate that Democrats do not have a positive vision to solving our current problems. Their entire ideology is based in opposing conservatism, not offering actual solutions.

Understand this: The Democratic existence, at least with this current crop of liberal leaders, completely relies on criticizing conservatives.